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A Godrej almirah stands in the corner of a 10×10 square-foot room in a Mumbai chawl. Wedged into its edges are two photographs: a fading passport-size picture of a man and one of a newly-wedded couple, keepsakes of a life interrupted.
Rafiq Mehboob Tamboli, 35 year old in 2021, sold kaanda-batata (onions and potatoes) from a cart, and would occasionally drive a tempo for a meat dealer. On June 4, 2021, Rafiq left home at 10:30 a.m. to make a delivery in Pune, about 150 km away. He was to return at dawn the following day.
It has been over four years since that day. His wife, Reshma, 33, and their two children, now 13 and 11, still hope he will return. “That night at 9.30, he said he’d started back for Mumbai,” Reshma says, recalling her last call with him. She turns to the photos: “They are wearing out.”
Imran Sheikh Abdul Gafar, the cleaner who was with Rafiq, still remembers the night clearly. A white car began tailing their tempo near Shivachi Aai Mandir (on the outskirts of Pune) and at about 10:30 p.m. forced them to stop, he says. “Five or six men with bamboo sticks, knives, and swords broke the window, dragged us out, and beat us while shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. They tore open the packages and took our cash,” he shares. Imran adds that he hid in the bushes, witnessing the assault on Rafiq.
The men took the tempo to Daund police station, where an FIR was lodged at 4:12 a.m. on June 5, 2021, under various sections of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, alleging transport of beef — illegal in Maharashtra. The FIR was filed by Shivshankar Rajendra Swami, who says he is now president of the Pune District All India Krishi Gau Seva Sangh, a self-proclaimed 97-year-old animal rights organisation. In the FIR, he is described as an “Animal Welfare Officer”. The FIR did not name the alleged attackers.
Reshma says she did several rounds of the police station, but, “only a missing report was filed and no one tried to trace Rafiq”. She has now taken on the kaanda-batata cart business to make ends meet. Reshma approached the Bombay High Court in 2024. This August, the court directed the Superintendent of Police, Pune (Rural), to file a progress report on tracing Rafiq and explain why Reshma’s complaint had not been registered as an FIR.
Across Maharashtra, traders are fearful of transporting meat by road for fear of cow vigilantes targeting them. The pattern is the same, they allege: a group of men surrounds a tempo and gets violent with those transporting the meat. Often, live cattle being transported are intercepted, with the vigilantes claiming they are being taken to be slaughtered. Families of those impacted say the police often doesn’t cooperate with them in filing FIRs.
The gau rakshaks (cow protectors), who have been growing in number and stature over the past 20 years, deny being violent.
Cow monitors
Swami, 31, boasts that in 11 years his organisation has rescued about 30,000 cows, calves, and oxen. “Under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, cows are protected from slaughter. Oxen were banned when the Act was amended in 2015. Despite this law, enforcement is inconsistent as the police do not cooperate always. It is our social responsibility to intervene.” Only buffaloes can be slaughtered, he says.
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The ‘rescued’ cattle are taken to government gaushalas, he adds. As of 2025, there are 962 registered gaushalas in Maharashtra, with a capacity of holding about 1.5 lakh animals. They get funding from both Central and State governments. “In Maharashtra, gau rakshaks never attack,” he claims. “When meat is seized, the drivers often admit it’s cow or ox meat and they do not have receipts. The police then verify this through lab tests and bury the meat,” he adds.
Swami’s first field experience was at 17, when he joined Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote, the president of Samasta Hindutvavadi Aghadi, a group whose tagline is “Struggle for Hindu existence”. He claims they rescued 29 cows from Pune’s Chakan market.
“Since then, Qureshis have attacked me eight times. All the FIRs against us are cleared as we are never at fault,” he says. Qureshis are a community traditionally in the meat business. He holds an identity card that says ‘Committee to Monitor Animal Welfare Laws in Maharashtra appointed by the Honourable Bombay High Court’.
“There are around 6,000 gau rakshaks in Maharashtra, of which 350 hold ID cards. There is no age limit for this selfless work,” Swami says.
A internal January 2018 letter of the Animal Husbandry Department said that Shivshankar Swami and Milind Ekbote were “taking the law into their own hands”, recommending cancellation of their appointments.
Advocate Satish B. Talekar, who is handling Reshma’s case, says this committee was formed after a 2005 PIL in the Bombay High Court by Swami’s organisation. “Under RTIs filed between 2018 and 2021, we learnt that the High Court stopped monitoring this committee in 2008. Yet IDs still carry the label ‘High Court appointed’, conferring undue authority.”
A lynching goes live
On June 24, 2023, Affan Abdul Majid Ansari, 32 then, left his home in Mumbai at 10:30 p.m. to work a night shift carting meat to Pune. Near Nashik, a mob of 20 armed with iron rods allegedly stopped the vehicle, demanded money, and beat him and driver Nasir Qureshi, forcing them to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. A video of the assault went viral. Affan died on the spot; Nasir survived.
The postmortem report confirmed that Affan had suffered multiple injuries to his vital organs. Afroz Ansari, 27, his widow, says, “I started working as a domestic help to keep our daughters, 5 and 9, in school.”
On January 17, 2024, Afroz moved the Bombay High Court through advocate Talekar, seeking implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 anti-lynching guidelines, fast-track trials, and compensation. In October 2025, the court awarded her a ₹10 lakh compensation, but the government has sanctioned ₹5 lakh, the lawyer says.
While mob lynching did not form a part of the previous codified law, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, now explicitly defines it in Section 103(2) (murder by five or more persons acting on identity grounds) and Section 117(4) (grievous hurt). This raises expectations of clearer categorisation and tougher penalties, says Talekar.
A teenager traumatised
Around 270 km away from Mumbai, in a village of Ahilyanagar district, a 17-year-old boy ended his life in October 2025. The day before, cow vigilantes had allegedly intercepted his tempo, assaulted him, and live-streamed the attack, calling him a cow smuggler.
The boy belongs to the traditionally-pastoral Dhangar community. Neighbours and relatives have gathered at the family’s home. A mat is laid on the porch of the house with a tin roof. “Justice is only for people with money and power,” says his mother.
Their older son, 18, a class 12 student, has tonsured his head to perform the funeral rites of his brother. “He would wake up at 5 in the morning. He’d clean the cowshed, bathe and feed the cows. He sold milk in his tempo, returned by 7, ate breakfast, and went to school by 8. In the afternoon, he would help our parents on the farm,” he says.
On October 27, the boy left home around 2 p.m. with a cow in his tempo to hand over to his kaka (uncle), a farmer in a village 200 km away. “A group of four gau rakshaks intercepted him, accused him of smuggling, beat him up, demanded ₹5,000, and seized his phone so that he could not contact anyone. They live-streamed the attack on social media and threatened him,” he says.
At Loni police station, they filed an FIR against the boy, claiming he was transporting the cow to a slaughterhouse. When his family reached the police station around 5 p.m., the police said the vehicle would be released upon payment of ₹15,000. The police say the cow was sent to a gaushala, but when the family asked for documentation or proof, none was provided.
Mumbai-based Reshma Rafiq’s husband has been missing since 2021. He was allegedly attacked by cow vigilantes.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini
Around 8 p.m., the boy came home with bruises all over his body and face, says his mother. She cleaned them with water and applied turmeric on them. “He ate roti and baigan bhaji and went to bed. The next morning, my husband and I went to find work and to arrange money to get the tempo back from the police,” she says. When they got back home, he was unresponsive. They rushed him to the hospital, 16 km from their village, but he was declared brought dead.
After the postmortem, the family refused to take the body until the police registered an FIR against the alleged assaulters. The family says around 200 Dhangars gathered outside Loni police station. Only a day and a half later was an FIR registered against four men who remain absconding. Loni Police Sub-Inspector Sanjay Vikhe says, “A case has been registered for abetment of suicide, which prescribes punishment up to life imprisonment or death for inciting the suicide of a minor.” The police also say that the accused, identified as Dinesh Rakecha, Prashant Rakecha, Sourav Lahamge, and Sanket Kharde, all between 20 and 22, are affiliated to the Bajrang Dal and have a record of attacking people transporting cattle.
On October 31, the villagers and activists staged a protest outside the police station demanding a speedy and impartial investigation.
Trade under siege
Around 300 km away from Mumbai is Bepari Mahola in Ahilyanagar, where meat treaders are pondering the future of their ancestral business. They say the frequent attacks on them and their trade has left many jobless. Some have garment stalls on the footpath now. Many are learning to become mechanics, while some are selling paan or fruits and vegetables.
Ayan Zakir Qureshi, 21, is the sole breadwinner for his family of five. His father, 50, once in the meat trade, quit after he says he was repeatedly harassed and assaulted by cow vigilante groups who barged into their home, seized cattle despite valid receipts, and filed FIRs.
Also read: Prominent attacks by cow vigilantes from 2015 to 2017
In October 2024, Ayan and his uncle, Mustakim Janimiya Qureshi, 34, were returning from Ravadewadi village in Shirur, Pune, with 15 calves, when he says a mob chased and attacked them near Supa village.
“Initially, there were around 15 people following us on bikes and cars, but as we reached Supa, the mob increased to hundreds. We had to stop our vehicle because they had surrounded us from everywhere. They pelted stones at us, broke the glass window, and dragged us out. They kicked us, hit us with sticks, iron rods. The police arrived only after an hour of torture,” he says. The entire assault was allegedly filmed and circulated on social media.
Both sustained serious injuries and were hospitalised for 15 days. While the police registered FIRs from both sides, only six attackers were arrested and released within four months. Ayan says after that incident, he feels dizzy often. He shows a video on social media by one of the alleged attackers, who is holding a sword and warning meat traders. Ayan is now training to be a mechanic.
A septuagenarian, who does not want to be named, once ran a wholesale meat business and now sells tea on a footpath. “Ahilyanagar has around 2,500 Qureshis, directly involved in the meat trade. I spent my whole life in the meat trade. It’s a wholesale business that once fed thousands of families.”
Before 2014, one Friday cattle market alone would see ₹3–4 crore worth of trade in the district, he says. “There were 15 such markets. Farmers and traders would come from Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and across Maharashtra to buy cattle. Each cow would cost anywhere from ₹40,000 to ₹90 lakh.”
From 70 shops, he says there are now barely 15. “Newspapers started printing headlines like ‘Gau maas dharla’ (cow meat seized). The police would register cases based on these reports without conducting any lab tests.” Ahilyanagar’s Ghodegaon bazaar, where the meat trade took place, is deserted.
Seven years ago, the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation approved a slaughterhouse on 2 hectares of land, near Wakodi, but the project was stalled amid religious and environmental objections. A municipal official says land was allocated and funds earmarked, but construction never began.
Licenses stopped being renewed after 2014 say the few meat sellers who remain. They add that markets faced demolition, and buffalo meat consignments, legal under State law, were frequently seized. Traders say peaceful protests were met with municipal action.
Faheem Qureshi, Supreme Court and Bombay High Court advocate, and national president of the All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee, has raised concerns over an October 2025 circular of the Maharashtra Transport Commissioner, which details strict compliance with animal welfare laws. “It can be easily misused by cow vigilante groups,” he says.
During a three-month strike by meat traders from June to September 2025, cattle markets across Maharashtra, supported by Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, were shut down, and meat shops closed.
According to the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2024, published by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, India is the fifth-largest meat producer in the world, with 10.25 million tonnes of meat produced in 2023–24. Buffalo meat dominates exports, with countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt, and the UAE being the largest markets.
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